Metro Radio Arena
Metro Radio Arena (formerly the Newcastle Arena and Telewest Arena) is a sports and entertainment arena in the city of Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England, United Kingdom. Owned and operated by the SMG Europe and sponsored by Metro Radio, it hosts music, entertainment, sports & business events. Having also had various professional basketball and ice hockey teams as tenants for much of its history, since 2009 it has had no ice hockey team after the departure of the Newcastle Vipers to the Whitley Bay Ice Rink, and no basketball team since the departure of the Newcastle Eagles to Northumbria University's Sport Central arena in 2010.
History
Two well known local musicians conceived and helped build the arena, Chas Chandler and his business partner Nigel Stanger. The NYSE listed Ogden Corporation was awarded a 20 year contract in February 1995 to design the arena, and once completed, to manage the facility including booking and promotion. According to Ogden, the arena clearly filled a market opportunity for touring acts who had otherwise bypassed the area, with the next nearest local venue being the 2,000 seat Newcastle City Hall, and the only other medium-sized venues being as far away as Sheffield to the south or Glasgow to the north. Acts that did visit the region often had to make use of the 3,200 seat Whitley Bay Ice Rink.
Metro Radio
Metro Radio is a local radio station owned and operated by Bauer Radio as part of the City 1 network. It broadcasts to County Durham, Northumberland and Tyne and Wear from studios in Newcastle. The station's output - shared with sister North East station TFM - is principally contemporary pop and dance music, alongside talk programming and local news bulletins.
History
Launch
The Newcastle-based station, broadcasting to North East England, launched on 15 July 1974. The first Breakfast Show was presented by Don Dwyer, an Australian radio presenter formerly at ABC, Len Groat, Giles Squire, Dave Gregory, James Whale, Peter Wraight, Peter Sampson and Harry Rowell were also there from the beginning. The first show also included messages of congratulations from Kenny Everett at the equivalent local commercial station in London, Capital Radio.
Studios
The station transmitted from a studio in Swalwell, Gateshead, which, in later years, would be adjacent to the MetroCentre. In 2005 Metro, and sister station Magic 1152 moved to the former BT building, previously known as Swan House, now known as 55° North, next to the Tyne Bridge in Newcastle upon Tyne.
Metro 2 Radio
Metro 2 Radio is a local radio station owned and operated by Bauer Radio as part of the City 2 network. It broadcasts to County Durham, Northumberland and Tyne and Wear from studios in Newcastle. It broadcasts on 1152 AM and on DAB radio.
History
Great North Radio or G.N.R as it was sometimes called was formed in March 1989 using the AM frequencies of Metro Radio and Radio Tees . This happened after the Metro Radio group decided to split the FM and AM frequencies up.
GNR's output consisted of mellow music from the 1950s through to the 1980s, including current hits that fitted the format. There were also specialist programmes each evening, including Country Music, Jazz, and Classical.
In December 2001, EMAP decided that it was more economical for the Magic network to share off-peak programmes and in line with the other Magic AM stations began networking between 10am-2pm, and 7pm-6am. During these hours it was simply known as Magic, although there were local commercial breaks, and local news on the hour.
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